War Conditions.
country in his speech at the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's Day. Britain, he said, would not sheathe the sword until Belgium had recovered all and more than all that she had sacrificed, until France was adequately secured against the menace of aggres- sion, until the rights of the smaller nationalities were placed on an unassailable foundation, until the military dominion of Prussia was fully and finally destroyed.
Meanwhile England was feeling day by day more and more what it meant to be at war. On the coasts, and especially the east coast, houses were destroyed which might either obstruct the British line of fire or serve as landmarks for a hostile fleet ; lamps were extinguished on the sea front and all streets leading to it; no lights were allowed to be shown from private houses; and lighthouses and lightships were tem- porarily extinguished. The development of air warfare shortly caused the streets of London and all towns accessible from the east to be darkened, and searchlights, special guns, and an increasing number of air machines to be held in readiness against attack; while all trains in the south-eastern quarter of England had to have their blinds drawn after nightfall. The fall of Antwerp and the loss of the Belgian coast to the enemy brought the imminence of the danger home. These events in Belgium brought also a great accession to the number of Belgian refugees who had already sought shelter in England, and a vast organiza- tion of public and private benevolence catered for their needs. On the other hand, public opinion in England was cheered about this time by the arrival of the first contingent of Canadian troops, the forerunner of a mighty force from all the Dominions; and by the appearance in the battle line in France of native troops from India. This was unfortunately succeeded by the news of the defeat of Adml. Cradock at Coronel.
The new parliamentary session, which opened on Nov. n, followed immediately upon a serious development of the con- flict the entry of Turkey into the war as an ally of ' the Central Powers (which had as one result the proclamation of Egypt as a British Protectorate). The King, in his Speech, said that " the only measures which will be submitted to you, at this stage of the session, are such as seem necessary to my advisers for the attainment of the great purpose upon which the efforts of the Empire are set." The most burning question of the moment was the scale of pensions and disable- ment allowances for sailors and soldiers and their dependents. Mr. Asquith welcomed a suggestion made by Mr. Law that it should be referred for decision to a small committee of all parties. Mr. Arthur Henderson, who had succeeded the pacifist Mr. Ramsay Macdonald as chairman of the Labour party, promised the full support of organized labour in maintaining unity.
The finance of the war claimed the immediate attention of Parliament. The Prime Minister moved a Vote of Credit for 225,000,000, anda further addition of a million men to the army. On Nov. 1 7 the Chancellor of the Exchequer Budget. explained how it was proposed to raise the money. He had to provide for a deficit of nearly 340 millions. Following the precedents of Pitt in the French War and Glad- stone in the Crimean War, a substantial part of this must be obtained by increased taxation levied on all classes. He proposed to double the income-tax (bringing it up to 25. 6d.), and super- tax, to add the equivalent of a halfpenny a half-pint to the taxation of beer, and to raise the duty on tea from sd. to 8d. In a full year, he calculated that these increases would bring in over 65 millions. He further announced the immediate issue of a loan of 350,000,000, at 35%, at 95, which was promptly sub- scribed. He calculated the cost of the first full year of war as at least 450,000,000. Other important war measures taken at this time were the purchase by Government of 18,000,000 worth of sugar a foretaste of the coming control of food sup- plies, not yet expected; a scheme for the manufacture of aniline dyes, hitherto made exclusively in Germany the consumers to subscribe three millions, and the Government to guarantee debenture interest on another million and a half; the setting up by statute of a custodian of enemy property in the person of the Public Trustee.
At the end of November the King crossed to France, and spent a week with his army in the field. The visit, which was repeated in subsequent years of war, greatly cheered and sustained the troops. Almost immediately after- German wards came the news of Adml. Sturdee's victory off the 'by'sfa Falkland Isles. But this was succeeded by evidence and Air. that, even though invasion of England in force might be too hazardous to be attempted, the country was exposed to harassing and destructive attacks by sea and air. On the morn- ing of Dec. 16 German warships appeared off Hartlepool, a great business port, and Scarborough and Whitby, two much- frequented watering-places, and bombarded all three towns, doing considerable damage, and killing some 140 people, and wounding many others, mostly civilians, including women and children. The ships only remained for half an hour and then disappeared in the mist, before any portion of the British fleet, save patrol boats, could come up. On Christmas Eve a German aero- plane dropped a bomb in a bed of cabbages near Dover Castle, and at midday on Christmas Day another got up the Thames as far as Erith, but was then chased off. These events produced no panic, but stimulated recruiting, which remained brisk in England, though in Ireland Mr. Redmond's efforts were only moderately successful.
Speaking in December, Mr. Bonar Law, while rightfully claiming that the Opposition had distinguished itself from pre- vious war-time oppositions by its patriotic reticence, remarked that perhaps, indeed, they had not criti- cized the Government enough. The early months of 1915 witnessed a change. It was clear that the war, which in the west had settled down into trench-fighting, would last for a considerable time, even assuming that the " steam-roller " of the Russian advance would eventually cause the German strangle-hold on north-eastern France to relax; it was not so clear that all that the Government had done and left undone was judicious. Criticism therefore awoke, and became steadily more insistent till the formation of the first Coalition Ministry. But it was criticism, not on party lines, directed to the more efficient conduct of the war; the criticism from the pacifist side was negligible. It was urged that voluntary enlistment, though hitherto fairly adequate, could not possibly give the army all the men it would want; that the half-hearted British policy of search and blockade, though it provoked reasoned objections from the American Government, failed to do any serious harm to Germany; that steps should at once be taken to regulate the price of food, which was steadily mounting; that the Press Bureau, under Sir Stanley (afterwards Lord) Buckmaster, was unduly harassing; that quite undue mildness was shown in the treat- ment accorded to enemy aliens, who should all be interned; that insufficient attention was paid to the development of the air force; and, above all, that the Government had entirely failed to meet the requirements for munitions of war.
Feeling in England was hardened by the German proclama- tion of Feb. 4, declaring- a blockade of Great Britain from Feb. 18, claiming the right in the war-region to destroy
British ships without providing means of escape "Block-
, , , . ade" of
for passengers and crew, and warning neutral ships Britain.
that they might incur the same fate. " This," as Mr. Asquith said, "is in effect a claim to torpedo at sight, without regard to the safety of crew and passengers, any merchant vessel under any flag." It was resolved, in con- sequence, to detain, and take into port, ships carrying goods of presumed enemy destination, ownership or origin; and also to discriminate against submarine prisoners, as having disregarded the laws of war. The sinking of the " Lusi- tania," in accordance with this proclamation, by the Germans on May 7, with a great loss of life among innocent passengers, largely American, brought the aliens question in England to a head, as it produced violent anti-German intern- riots and demonstrations all over the country. It was Aliens. decided to intern or deport all enemy aliens, and to scrutinize carefully the cases of naturalized Germans. Wide- spread indignation had already been aroused this spring by the
